


Here There Be Dragons

by toffeecape



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies), Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Blind Character, Canon-Typical Violence, Disabled Character, Drift Compatibility, Drift Side Effects, Family Dynamics, Gen, Gift Exchange, Jaeger Pilots, Jaegers (Pacific Rim), Post-Drift (Pacific Rim), Secret Santa, The Drift (Pacific Rim)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-24 17:59:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17105438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toffeecape/pseuds/toffeecape
Summary: You've heard of ghost-Drifting, now get ready for: Drift ghosts!





	Here There Be Dragons

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dragontamer05](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragontamer05/gifts).



“Seto,” says Mokuba, “that woman is here again.” He draws back Kisara Blue’s fist and slams it into what looks like Fisaurus’ neck.

Neck or not, the kaiju folds around the point. Seto has already been pivoting their other side for an elbow jab, and their jaeger’s arm ends up wedged partially inside the kaiju’s back. “You know better than to chase a RABIT, Mokuba,” he grunts.

“I’m not. She’s right here in the cockpit with us.” The woman has an amazing mane of white hair. Most of Mokuba is busy helping Seto free their arm and continue beating Fisaurus to a pulp, but a little part of him itches to try and touch that hair. Hair aside, her eyes alone would give her away - maybe someone real, somewhere, has eyes that blue, but hers are also glowing.

“Stop _looking!_ ” Seto snaps, because he can sense Mokuba’s curiosity through the Drift. Mokuba doesn’t need the Drift to feel the concern beneath Seto’s anger.

When the fight is over, Fisaurus’s remains bobbing among waves stained an oily cobalt, Kisara Blue striding back to the Shatterdome, Mokuba says, “How can she be a RABIT when I’ve never seen anyone like her in my life?”

Seto mutters something.

“What?”

He scowls and switches off their comms. “I said I’ve seen her before. I started having dreams about her when I was drawing up the plans for Kisara Blue.”

Mokuba is thrilled. “Seto,” he says in awe, “are you telling me you think of our jaeger as a pretty lady?”

“I will _murder_ you if you tell anyone. _Twice_ if you tell Wheeler.”

“Which one?”

 _“Either_ one!”

“I’ll save it for really juicy blackmail then.”

“Murder.” Seto switches the comms back on, effectively ending the conversation as he spins some kind of lie about interference.

***

Mokuba blows into his hands and chafes his upper arms. “How is it that rain and wind are exponentially colder together?”

Yugi chuckles and lifts up his umbrella. From his wheelchair he can only get it to about the height of Mokuba’s shoulder. “Here, hold it high enough for both of us.” Mokuba huddles under it gratefully.

“Who are we here to greet again? I mean, I know he’ll be piloting Millennium Game, but I didn’t catch his name.”

“Uhh…” Mokuba checks his tablet. “Atem Sennen.”

Yugi’s right eyebrow shoots up - and only the right one, forgetting to control his face in his surprise. “The surviving pilot of Lustre Illusion?”

“I think so. Wasn’t that the one where the other pilot just vanished into thin air?”

“Close enough,” says a deep voice beside them. Mokuba and Yugi both jump and turn to look at the newcomer, and Mokuba gapes. Aside from darker skin and a scowl that wouldn’t look out of place on a wet cat, the man is a dead ringer for Yugi.

Mokuba recovers first, years of schmoozing practice kicking in. “Mr. Sennen! A pleasure to meet you! I’m Mokuba Kaiba, younger brother of Seto Kaiba who recruited you.” He bows, and Atem follows suit somewhat awkwardly; Mokuba remembers too late that Egyptians are more inclined to shake hands. Yugi one-ups Mokuba by holding out a hand for him to shake. “And this is-”

“Yugi Mutou,” Atem says eagerly, pumping his hand, “King of Games!”

This startles a laugh out of Yugi. “Not Yugi Mutou, pilot of Giga Gandora? I thought everyone in the world saw the footage of her exploding.”

Atem shrugs. “That too, of course, but - well...” He stutters into silence, and looks more and more mortified until Yugi takes mercy on him (not that it takes long - Yugi is literally the kindest person Mokuba has ever met).

“I’m messing with you,” Yugi chuckles. “It’s nice to meet someone who was a fan before the Breach. Reminds me to hope for a time after it. C’mon, let’s give you the tour.” He wheels off so quickly Mokuba and Atem have to almost jog to catch up to him.

The Domino Shatterdome was never the largest, just four hangars, but lately it’s still felt too big with just Kisara Blue and Redeye Black, too much like a deserted temple built by an extinct race. Mokuba is relieved that Millennium Game has joined them. The engineers and mechanics swarming over the new(ish) jaeger, bringing her closer and closer to completion, have filled the Shatterdome with noise and activity - and most of them will stay on to be her maintenance crew once she’s ready for combat. Yugi introduces Atem to everyone who stops for them, and points out everyone who doesn’t. Atem nods seriously at them all like he’s trying his best to commit every name to memory.

“And this is Joey and Serenity Wheeler, the pilots of Redeye Black.”

Serenity faces the general direction of Yugi’s voice and adds, “and the dog is Duke. Please ignore him when he’s in harness.” Duke leads her carefully around Yugi’s wheelchair, stopping in range for her to shake Atem’s hand.

Joey snaps his bubblegum (Mokuba despairs of knowing where he’s still getting bubblegum these days). “So, you’re the one they found to pilot the Frankenjaeger?”

“Joey! Be nice,” Serenity chides, “She’s a new jaeger made of old parts.”

“Yeah, so old they’re digging up old pilots to go with ‘em.”

Atem stares him down, and Joey is the first one to break eye contact. “That’s right,” he says evenly, “it’s theorized that having at least one pilot familiar with the Mark II interface will improve Millennium Game’s performance. Or so the elder Kaiba put it.”

“Yeah? And where you gonna get the other pilot from?”

“From my records, Joey,” Yugi says patiently. “I’ll assess Atem and find him the best match from the other pilots I’ve Drifted with.”

Atem stares. “So it’s true, then? You can Drift with anyone?”

Yugi shrugs. “Pretty much. They think it has something to do with the stroke I had.”

He says it so casually. Mokuba tries to hide his flinch. The stroke cost Yugi the use of his left side for months; all these years later, he still has only partial function. Some (including Yugi) say it was a small price to pay for defeating Bonehammer before it even made landfall (thereby securing the future of the jaeger program), and sparing other solo prototype pilots similar injuries by spurring the development of the Drift protocol. Some say that, but Mokuba doesn’t; he sees how hard Yugi pushes himself, and he sees the way Seto needs a stiff drink the night after spending a day working closely with Yugi.

Yugi skips right over the awkward moment by giving Atem a crooked, challenging grin. “Whaddya say, hotshot? Want to step into my head and let me find you a copilot?”

Atem’s smile is smaller, but there’s a spark in his eye. “Ready when you are.”

***

Of course, Seto shows up for Atem’s assessment. “You know, he kept Lustre Illusion going on his own after Mahaad Sahir vanished. Finished off Necrofade by himself and everything. We know how badly solo piloting usually goes. I want to see his brain scan for myself before I trust him with Millennium Game.”

Atem and Yugi are deep in concentration, their faces all but invisible behind their Pons headsets. Still, Mokuba keeps his voice down when he says, “You dragged him all this way when you weren’t sure he could even do it?”

Seto doesn’t look away from the monitor displaying the neural handshake as it forms. “It’s the end of the world, Mokuba. The only new jaeger in more than a year is cobbled together from spare parts. I do what I have to.”

It looks like Seto’s bet paid off this time. Atem slides into the Drift as quickly as Mokuba’s ever seen. Sure, it’s with Yugi, but still.

Atem laughs, a weirdly young and carefree sound. Mokuba grins, because he gets it. Drifting with Yugi feels like… like being a little kid again, and running outside to play with your best friend. That’s literally what he does in many of his assessments: playing a game. He’s come out of neural handshakes to hugs, kisses, or demands to be someone’s copilot more times than Mokuba can count.

Their arms and fingers twitch in unison, Yugi’s left side moving as freely as his right for once as Atem’s fully-intact right brain picks up the slack. The way they’re holding their left arms is familiar, and when they raise their right hands with index and middle fingers pointed, Mokuba jolts in recognition. “They’re playing Duel Monsters!”

“I’m not surprised,” says Seto. “Sennen took the last North African Championship, and probably would have gone on to face Yugi at Worlds if the Breach hadn’t opened up.”

“Of course you remember a tidbit like that.” Before the end of the world, Duel Monsters was Seto’s baby. He got so obsessed with it Mokuba had to force him to promise to never play it competitively again. “Joey and Serenity will be pleased,” Mokuba muses aloud, “they still play it the old-fashioned way sometimes.”

“Without holograms? What’s the point?”

“Serenity can’t _see_ the holograms, brother mine.”

“... Right. Of course.”

“They’ve hand-punched Braille into every card. If we ever close the Breach and go back into business, we should release them like that from now on.”

“Hm. Maybe embossed on the front… Put it on the list.”

Yugi finally speaks in a tone intended for others to hear. “Okay, we’re coming out.” On the monitors, the neural handshake disengages. It takes a while; Yugi may be Drift-compatible with almost everyone, but this link with Atem is _especially_ tight.

They take off their Pons helmets and shake their heads, wearing typical dazed post-Drift expressions. Yugi is the first one to speak.

“Atem is my copilot.”

Everyone in the room, including Atem, shouts, _“What?!”_

“Not that I don’t _want_ to,” Atem adds hastily, “more than anything, but - with me? Are you sure? I’m - well, you saw. Damaged.”

Yugi raises an eyebrow and flings out his left arm, letting the motion be more spastic than Mokuba knows he can manage. “It’s the Apocalypse. Everyone still here is damaged.”

“Some more than others,” Seto snaps. “What’s your plan for lugging your left side around in a jaeger?”

“Put some servos in a drivesuit,” Yugi shoots back. “Once we’re Drifting Atem can take the right hemisphere.” He glances at Atem, who meets his gaze and jerks his head in a little nod in tandem with Yugi. All the strongest pilot pairs are like that after a Drift, like they’re still linked even without a Pons. Mokuba and Seto are like that, and Joey and Serenity. They need hours of downtime in the pilots’ lounge after missions before they’re ready to separate and act like people. Unbelievably, Mokuba feels like maybe this can work.

“And who will assess new pilots, and assign them to each other?”

“When they don’t already come as a pair? They can find each other through sparring, like in every other Shatterdome in the world.” _If we ever get another jaeger,_ Yugi doesn’t say, but they're all thinking it.  

“Inefficient.” Seto’s voice is degrading into a snarl, classic fury-over-fear.

“Seto…” Mokuba says, and hesitates as he tries to think of something he can bear to say aloud to his brother in front of other people. “Nowhere is safe anymore.”

It’s still not diplomatic enough. Seto rounds on Mokuba, and the set of his mouth is vicious, but Mokuba can see how wide his eyes are. “What are you implying?”

It’s Yugi who forestalls another rant. “Kaiba. Look at me.” When Seto has turned again, Yugi deliberately relaxes his posture, letting the muscles in the left side of his face droop like melting plastic. It’s so like the terrible day Giga Gandora was destroyed that Mokuba breaks out into goosebumps. “Kaiba. You _owe_ me this.”

That takes the wind out of Seto’s sails. He slumps, and mutters, “This is really what you want? You’re sure?”

“I’m sure. When can you have a modified drivesuit ready?”

“...Today. I’ve had it ready for years.”

“What,” Atem says under his breath, looking between Yugi and Seto. Mokuba sympathizes with his confusion; even he doesn’t fully understand how it is between them, and he’s been in both their heads. But the Kaiba brothers have gotten this far by each making sure the other lets his freak flag fly; they’re not about to quit now. Mokuba shrugs and wanders over to a console to check up on the work on Millennium Game.

***

Millennium Game has barely been cleared for combat before the Breach spews out a double event. LOCCENT staff christen the two (two!) kaiju Fangridge and Harrier, and the three jaegers do _not_ take them down before they make landfall. The (empty, thankfully) town of Domino is all but wiped off the map by the time the kaiju breathe their last.

“I know I only see when I'm Drifting with Joey, so I could be wrong,” Serenity says, “but I kind of feel like these things are getting uglier, as well as multiplying.”

“They took out Burger World!” Yugi mourns.

“And Grandpa's game shop,” Atem seethes.

“That's _my_ Grandpa's game shop, Atem.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Rangers, fall back to the Shatterdome for repairs,” Seto commands.

“And to rest up,” Mokuba adds, “good work today.”

“If you say so,” Joey says. They do look like a pretty sorry bunch considering they just took out two kaiju at once. The pilots’ exhaustion is mirrored in the postures of their jaegers as they trudge back to base.

Also, the Drift ghost is back in Kisara Blue's cockpit, and this time she's not just standing and staring at them. Now she's moving her hands and mouth. Even though his haze of fatigue, Mokuba feels disturbed enough by the sight for the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up.

“I think she's trying to talk, but I can't hear anything. Can you, Seto?”

“Stop. _Looking!”_ Seto grinds out, staring fixedly straight ahead.

“What are you talking about?” Serenity asks.

“Nothing,” Mokuba mumbles, “just a Drift ghost. Oh look, we're home. Time to sleep for nineteen hours. Later, everybody.”

He only gets to sleep for fourteen hours before he wakes up to piss and gets abducted on his way back from the head. Mokuba's a burly guy, generally hard to kidnap, but Serenity is diabolical: she removes Duke's harness and tells him, “Go play,” and as he bounds away she tucks her hand into the crook of Mokuba's elbow.

“Oh,” she coos, “my guide dog is off duty. Won't you please walk me to the pilots’ lounge?”

Mokuba knows when he's been outmaneuvered, and resigns himself to walking across half the Shatterdome in his sleep clothes. “Seto wishes he was half the manipulator you are,” he grouses.

“What I do, I do in the service of a higher purpose,” she declares. “Namely, having a pilots' meeting on the down-low.”

“Why does it need to be on the down-low?”

“We'll talk about it once we're there.”

“Ugh.”

“There'll be food.”

“Ooh! Why didn't you say so?” Mokuba walks a little faster.

As promised, there is food, presided over by Joey who apparently was the one to round it up. There are also Yugi and Atem more or less velcroed together on one of the couches, and Seto standing in a corner with his arms crossed.

Mokuba gathers some steak and eggs, and a bowl of granola with yogurt and chocolate sprinkles (the Wheelers are _really_ trying to butter everyone up) and lightly hip-checks his brother before handing him the former. “You were gone when I woke up,” he remarks, “how much did you sleep?”

“Enough. I had work to do. Work I'm being kept from with _blackmail.”_ He takes a huge bite of steak and munches it resentfully. After he swallows he looks sidelong at Mokuba and says awkwardly, “You're okay, right?”

“I'd be more okay if I didn't have to worry so much about my family.” It's an old, old argument, older than the kaiju war, worn smooth at the edges. They both know all the lines by heart.

“You-” but Seto's next line is cut off by Serenity clapping her hands.

“Everyone! Thank you for coming. I've called this meeting to talk openly about something we’ve all been ignoring up until now. Joey, the door?”

“Locked.”

“Okay.” She takes a deep breath, and pans her blind gaze around the room. Mokuba isn't the only one who squirms when it falls on him. “We need to talk about Drift ghosts.”

“No we don't,” Seto says instantly, striding for the door. Joey steps into his path.

“The door's locked, rich boy, and it ain't comin’ open until my sister's had her say.” He says it quietly, but his stance is wide and his hands have already curled into fists. Seto, who may be taller but who looks like a jointed doll made of broomsticks, stands down.

Serenity continues as if the interruption never happened. “I’ll go first. Our ghost, mine and Joey's, comes from me. It's Saint Joan, Joan of Arc. I…” She falters, then says in a rush, “I prayed to her while I was going blind. From the moment Joey and I first Drifted I could feel her watching over me.”

“But I could never see her,” Joey says, “until now.”

“And she never said anything back. Until now.”

“What does she say?” Atem says urgently.

“She says she can help us. That time is running out. I've been trying to ignore her; I don't want to chase a RABIT. But RABITs don't talk back. And now, with this double event… if two can come through at once, why not more? And we're so few already.” Serenity cocks her head at Atem. “Do _you_ have a ghost?”

Atem nods firmly. “My old copilot, Mahaad.” Now it's his turn to look at each of them. “This is not to be shared outside this room, understand?” They all nod, and Yugi takes his hand.

“I did not know until the end of the mission against Necrofade that Mahaad had disappeared. The official story is he was caught in Necrofade's beam weapon and dematerialized. But in truth, he was fully present in the Drift with me the entire time, long after Lustre Illusion's sensors showed him having disappeared - physically, anyway. I only evaded further questioning about my display showing an uninterrupted neural handshake because Lustre Illusion was so damaged, it was assumed to be a malfunction.

Just before Lustre Illusion lost power, Mahaad, he - he said he would always be with me. I didn't understand until I exited the Drift. But then, the very next time I Drifted again,” he looks at Yugi, and the soft way Yugi looks back puts a lump in Mokuba's throat, “there he was.”

“I could see him too, and hear him, from the start,” Yugi says. “He says similar stuff to Joan, it sounds like.” He turns and looks at Seto and Mokuba.

Seto has his hands jammed into his armpits, and is looking at the deck like if he glares hard enough he might be able to melt a hole straight through it and escape this conversation. Mokuba volunteers, “We see the spirit of Kisara Blue: a woman with white hair and blue eyes. She talks, but I can't hear her; I think Seto can, but he doesn't like to talk about it.”

“Because it's _insane!”_ Seto bursts out. “By even acknowledging these hallucinations we should all be relieved of duty, and very probably committed.”

“Kaiba,” says Atem, “hallucinations can't share a neural load.” Seto hunches his shoulders and says nothing.

“Look,” says Serenity, “the Breach was created using powers we don't fully understand, but the effects of those powers are very real. What if - what if the help these - entities are offering is also real? Do we need to understand it to use it?”

“I mean,” Joey says, “that'd be _nice,_ don't get me wrong. I actually get where Kaiba's coming from.But I barely understand how our jaegers and the Drift work; doesn’t stop me from using ‘em to punch monsters in the face.”

“What are you even thinking we should do?” asks Mokuba. “Light some candles and break out a ouija board?”

Yugi says, “We could get in our jaegers. The Drift is where they contact us, so it's the best place to contact them. And if they _are_ just a new kind of RABIT, there'll be two jaegers to put down the one that goes haywire. We could call it a new drill.”

***

“We could call this my worst nightmare,” Seto mutters. “Standing around jaeger-knee-deep in the ocean, singing kumbaya to Drift ghosts.”

“It sounds like the Wheelers are praying novenas, actually,” says Mokuba. Seto turns and stares at him physically, to compound the incredulous judgement he's aiming Mokuba's way through the Drift. “What? I saw a documentary on Catholic saints once. And Joey talks about it sometimes, what it was like growing up that way.” Actually, he'd said, _I stopped believing when Serenity lost the last of her sight._ But apparently he still knew all the words, and didn't mind using them to support his sister.

Atem and Yugi are just mumbling, like one half of an overheard telephone conversation. “I was so-” “-yes, but purple?” “What are-” It sounds like the kind of unconscious nonsense lots of Drifting pairs utter, but Mokuba gets the distinct impression both of them are speaking to a third person - Mahaad, hopefully.

And then there's the party going on in the cockpit of Kisara Blue. Mokuba staring at their Drift ghost, the ghost standing with her hands on her hips, talking silently to Seto, and Seto looking at no one.

“Lady,” Mokuba says desperately, “can you not just talk to me instead?” He doesn't say, tries not to think, _I know I’m not special like my brother but I will do anything, anything at all to protect him, just please, please let me help,_ but of course Seto gets the gist. Mokuba feels his dismay.

“Mokuba, no,” Seto breathes, “how could you ever think-” but he's interrupted by an alarm - an incoming communiqué from LOCCENT. “The Breach is opening again, ahead of schedule.”

“We're out of time,” says Atem. “Kaiba, Mahaad says we can bring them through, but you _have_ to go first.”

“Go first to do _what?”_ Seto groans, “I don't - ow!”

“Ow!” says Mokuba in the same moment. He may not be able to hear the woman, but he sure felt it when she slapped Seto in the face.

Now she has her hands on either side of Seto's helmet, and is staring intensely into his eyes. Her eyes are glowing so brightly her pupils are no longer visible.

“Oh,” says Seto, “this is much better. You could have saved a lot of time by- fine.” He is silent for a moment, then says, “Mokuba,” quickly, as if answering a question, then, “Yes. Yes. Agreed.”

“Seto,” Mokuba says, “there are _three_ kaiju signatures incoming. Whatever you're going to do, you have to do it now!”

“Right.” The woman's hair lifts as if caught in an invisible wind, her whole body lit up with a white outline nearly as bright as the blue glow of her eyes. She spreads her arms and recedes out the front of the cockpit of Kisara Blue, and Seto and Mokuba spread the jaeger's arms to mirror her. Mokuba follows Seto's lead and finds himself slipping into a fierce focus, though on _what_ he can't say.

A - line, sort of, starts to form between the woman and Kisara Blue. It looks like a crack in a mirror, light bent and warped near it, and then it starts to glow, and then to widen.

“You guys are doing _something,”_ says Joey. “Gotta hand it to you, Kaiba, you got with the program pretty fast for someone who wasn't even talking to their contact two minutes ago.”

“Don't be stupid,” Seto grunts, “I _tried_ to talk to her, but all I heard when she spoke was-”

Through the crack comes an earsplitting roar.

“-that,” Seto finishes lamely.

Something starts to climb through the crack.

“Oh, God,” Serenity says, “what am I looking at? Joey? Describe it?”

“You're seeing it with my eyes, sis,” Joey says, “you can see as well as I can that that is a _goddamn dragon.”_

It is. _She_ is. Pearlescent silver-white all over, with jointed plating that straddles the line between mechanical and organic, and a serpentine neck and head, the latter filled with far too many teeth. Her eyes are what give her away - the same exact glowing blue as the woman's (who has vanished). She yanks the last of her tail through the crack and roars again, spreading her vast wings like death come hurtling out of a perfect blue sky. She's the most beautiful thing Mokuba has laid eyes on since Kisara Blue, and the most terrifying thing he has laid eyes on _ever._

“Lemme guess,” Joey says, not to them, his accent thickening in his distress, “you ain’t exactly Jeanne d'Arc, French peasant girl, are ya?”

“I guess she's not,” Serenity says weakly. There is a flash in the cockpit of Redeye Black, and the crack widens further, and the next dragon to climb through is so black it almost looks more like negative space. Negative space, and spines, and eyes like glowing coals. “To be fair, I don't think I would have been so quick to talk to - uh, her.”

“I can't help but notice both dragons look connected to your jaegers,” Yugi says. “But Millennium Game is made up of parts from half a dozen jaegers. What does that mean for her?”

A voice echoes through the crack. **It means you can help another way.**

“Mahaad,” Atem gasps, “we're here.”

“So are the kaiju!” shouts Mokuba, catching sight of three hillocks-and-dips of water, created by three large objects moving fast beneath the surface, converging on them.

**Hold them off.**

Two jaegers versus three kaiju aren't great odds. Two jaegers and two dragons is more encouraging. When the three great beasts rear their ugly heads, they appear visibly taken aback by the sight of the jaegers’ aerial backup - and then they are literally knocked back by the dragons’ beam attacks.

Even so, the fight is fierce. Mokuba and Seto lose themselves in the battle, acutely aware of the positions of friend and foe, and yet at the same time aware of little beyond the next swing of their arms, the next impact into kaiju bulk, the search for weak spots and opportunities. They don't even know the names of these three - LOCCENT may have named them, but they'd been too distracted to find out.

A small eternity later, Kisara Blue wheels around to seek out her next target - and doesn't find one. The only sound Mokuba can hear is his and Seto's gasping for air. All three kaiju are charred and broken hulks in the surf.

The dragons circle over them, roaring again - but it doesn't sound fierce or exultant like it did in combat. It's more of a wail, piercing and sad.

“Their blood!” Serenity gasps. “Look at it! Do you see?”

Mokuba sees. The blue-eyed white dragon and red-eyed black dragon are both bleeding from multiple gashes - bleeding bright, oily, unmistakable kaiju blue.

“They're the same,” Joey says, like he doesn't want to believe it. “They're the _same!”_ Redeye Black looks up as three more dragons swoop into view overhead: bulky, ancient-looking things, slower and heavier than the first two. “You tricked us!”

Redeye Black slams a fist into her palm and starts to move toward them, but Yugi shouts, “Joey, stop!”

Redeye Black and Kisara Blue both turn to face Millennium Game. The crack beside her is now more of a rift, and sitting on her shoulder is a small figure that would pass for human if it wasn't glowing vivid purple. It is this figure that speaks next, revealing himself as the voice that spoke from the other side.

**They are of the same blood. The kaiju are the dragons’ stolen children, mutilated and enslaved.**

“I'm sorry,” says Mokuba, who is very tired, “who are you?”

“Everyone,” Atem says, also sounding very tired, “meet Mahaad Sahir, also - apparently - known as the Dark Magician, also known as the overachiever who just _had_ to bring through three dragons in one go.”

 **I knew you and Yugi could handle it,** Mahaad says comfortably, **and Timaeus, Critias, and Hermos widened the rift enough to make it permanent.**

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” says Joey, at the same time that Seto says, “And we want that _why?”_

**Why, to oppose the Breach, of course. It's coded to the genetic structure of the beasts; that's why none of your weapons made it through.**

“But if kaiju and dragons are genetically the same,” Seto says slowly, “then the dragons can pass through.”

**Precisely. They shall find the masters of their stolen children, and teach them a lesson they will not soon forget.**

Mokuba feels his fatigue washing away on a new rush of adrenaline. “We have a chance,” he says.  

Beside him, Seto nods. “We can take the fight to them.”

As if in agreement, all five dragons roar again in concert - a bellow this time, so deep the jaegers vibrate. Mokuba finds himself yelling along with them, and over the comms he can hear the others doing the same.

And through the rift, first as echoing roars and then as shapes flying through one by one, more dragons answer the call.

Mokuba's grin is uncontrollable, stretching from ear to ear. “Hey, Seto...”

“Don't say it.”

“Here there be dragons.”

_“Ugh.”_

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas, dragontamer05! I'm your secret Santa! I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it for you :-)


End file.
